Ray, that is funny. Since becoming a bee keeper I have to make a conscious effort NOT to swat at anything I feel on my skin. It is a little freaky though when the bees start licking your skin.

I don't mind them on my arm or even on top of my head but when they go for the face or ears they get handled pretty quickly. Been stung there to many times, don't like it much. Ears get pretty puffy and itch like crazy. Those confrontations usually happen when I weed eat in front of the hives. :-D

>Somewhere Michael you quoted that bees clean the water somehow. Can you tell me again

Bees have a filter built into their proboscis and also a filter in their honey stomach. Between the two they can filter out most of the pollen particles (which sometimes are very small depending on the source). It's not fine enough to filter bacteria, per se, but most of that tends to be in clumps and probably does get filtered.

I had a book in front of me when I was making that post that had the microns in it... I don't remember off the top of my head and I'm not certain what book it was... but probably Winston's Honey Bee Biology...